The Shang Dynasty

Around 2000 BC, the Chinese learned how to make bronze out of tin and copper, so we call this the Bronze Age. About the same time, they developed writing.
Like Sumerian and Egyptian writing of this time, their writing is based on pictures that stand for ideas or sounds. We know of this writing from oracle bones, which are bones with writing carved into them.
They were used to tell fortunes. People also used bones and tortoise shells to keep records about who paid what to who, much like Linear A in Crete or Linear B tablets in Greece at the same time.
By about 1800 BC (the traditional date is 1766 BC), the Shang dynasty had become the first to unite a big part of China under one king. The king had his capital in Anyang, in northern China. People had already begun to divide up into the rich and the poor.
We know that some people were slaves under the Shang Dynasty. Many men were in the king's armies.
During the Shang Dynasty, people also began to use horse-drawn chariots. This is about the same time as in West Asia. People also used jade (a green stone) for jewelry and decoration. The Shang Dynasty lasted for about 700 years. But finally they were conquered by the Chou, about 1100 BC.